My goodness. Remember that I mentioned that I was gonna have some new movies from the Libe, and that they might provide a change of pace after the several Durango Kid flicks we watched this week? Boy, I wasn't kidding! Cue Monty Python : "And now for something completely different".....
I had found some new Criterion releases in my library search. One of them was called "Bigger Than Life" (1956), directed by Nicholas Ray of "Rebel Without A Cause" fame. This is what I watched tonight, and man was it ever a nerve-wracker. :)
The movie stars James Mason, and before we go any further I must request that you pronounce his first name as "Chames", as in "Chames Mason", because with his perfect yet slightly stilted English accent, that is how he himself would pronounce it, were he ever to say his own name.
I thank you for your cooperation in this and in all pronunciation matters.
Back to the movie, Mason is a schoolteacher, a little strict but reasonable. Very early in, we see that he is suffering from occasional attacks of what looks to be sharp pain in his back, or his side. He is doubled over near the drinking fountain or the coatroom. He tries to hide this affliction from his students and fellow teachers because he is stoic, but some of them notice.
His wife notices something else, that Mason seems to be busy with school meetings three or four nights a week. This seems unusual, so she questions him about it. He chalks it up to school politics, but she silently believes he is having an affair. This notion is dispensed with quickly, because he is not seeing anyone. He is a loving husband, but he does have a secret; he has been working a second job, as a taxi dispatcher in the evenings, to help make ends meet. His teachers' salary doesn't cut it, as all teachers are aware. Now his wife (Barbara Rush) knows the truth, and she loves him even more for it. Her fears were unwarranted, and they have an emotional 1950s-style melodramatic reconciliation that is actually very genuine. At first, this is like a movie directed by Douglas Sirk, if Nicholas Ray took over midway through to "up" the emotionalism to the breaking point.
Barbara Rush notices her husband's physical spasms, too. He tries to hide his pain, but finally he collapses in the kitchen and she convinces him to see a doctor.
The verdict : a rare inflammation of the arteries, fatal within a year, in the few cases the doctors have seen.
But! There is a new Miracle Drug which holds promise. Will Mason consent to try it?
Of course he will, or we would have a movie that was only thirty minutes long.
The new drug is Cortisone. The doctors call it a hormone; nowdays it is called a steroid. You know it mostly from the shots athletes get in an elbow or knee, to keep 'em in a game. Here in the movie, the drug is brand new, and it is being used to save Mason's life.
But there are side effects to the prolonged use of Cortisone, and this is what the movie is about.
Holy Smokes, I thought I was gonna have to go meditate in the Himalayas when this one was over.
Talk about 'Roid Rage. The day after he is released from the hospital after being given his first dosage of Cortisone, Chames Mason is feeling on top of the world. His pain is gone and he is playing football with his ten year old son (Mason throws a pretty tight spiral, not bad for a middle aged Englishman). Football is a side theme, as he was once a high school hero, another aspect of his disciplined, driven personality, which he tries to impart to both his students and his family. Wife Barbara Rush is the Perfect Acquiescent Spouse of the era. "Yes Dear", is her motto. But she grows increasingly alarmed as Mason's behavior grows more and more erratic. He becomes pumped up with confidence, and - as if drunk - his inner views come out and are exaggerated in public. At a PTA meeting, he declares his students, and all children by nature, to be imbeciles in need of strict guidance. The kids' parents aren't thrilled with his speech, but.....
after he pops a few more Cortisone pills, he is Absolutely Enthused to take his wife on a shopping spree to buy her some very expensive new dresses that they cannot afford. He insists on it, making a show of being cheerful.
Barbara Rush and their son can see something is very wrong, and I must say that - if you have ever seen any manic behavior by a parent due to drugs or alcohol - then you will recognise it too.
Mason becomes so unhinged due to his dependence on Cortisone, that he resorts to impersonating a doctor in order to forge prescriptions. He dominates his wife and son in bizarre ways that seem to reflect a desire to ride them all down the tubes.
Mason's portrayal of drug-induced manic depression is so eerily nuanced, so right on the money, that if you have ever witnessed it in your own life, it will give you the willies.
He tries to hold himself together, but he just keeps getting worse as he swallows double the amount of pills he has been prescribed.
Now, he and the family are at church, and he is loathing the preacher's sermon. He is sure he can do better, and so he goes home to study the bible. People are know-nothings, even the preacher.
What happens after this is so over the top that I might have needed a Martini when the movie was over, if I drank Martinis.
The ending has to do with the Biblical Abraham and his son, and is a full on psychodrama.
"Bigger Than Life" is one Gut Wrenching Movie, pretty weird and very dysfunctional. The acting is perfect all around (Mason going above and beyond), and you also get the sharp and varied pastel Color By Deluxe that set the standard for color motion pictures beginning in the late 1950s through the mid-60s. Deluxe took over where Technicolor left off, and defined the rest of the palette in between the rich primaries. /////
Two Thumbs Up for "Bigger Than Life", but you will be put through the wringer if you watch it.
Maybe we should bring back The Durango Kid?
We will, but not just yet, because we have a couple more movies from the libe to watch first.
See you in the morning, with much love to hold you until then. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Saturday, February 16, 2019
Friday, February 15, 2019
The Durango Kid & The Possibility Of Using Cattle Stampedes In Other Movies
Tonight's Durango Kid movie was called "Streets Of Ghost Town" (1950). As it begins, "Steve" (with yet another different surname) is arriving in a deserted town called Shadeville, with Smiley Burnette and the town sheriff in tow. The sheriff is explaining why Shadeville has become a ghost town : it's residents have all run off because a gang of outlaws who formerly controlled the area have been rumored to return, to take the land back. The outlaws once used the territory as a hideout. No other folks lived within miles of them, until the US Government offered free land there for homesteaders. After a land rush (literally a race to stake out a claim), the entire area, formerly empty save for the bad guys, was now fully populated.
The gang had used their hideout for years to rob folks who passed through on their way to other towns and cities. In doing so, they amassed a huge stash of money, jewelry and other valuables worth over a million dollars, which in 1880 was a very large sum.
The gang had to bail out when the land was settled. They took their stolen loot with them and have stashed it in an abandoned mine that they are sure no one knows about. But one of the gang gets greedy. He locks his partners in the mine and makes off with the treasure by himself.
Back in Shadeville, the Ghost Town, Smiley Burnette is playing with a Ouija Board, hoping the Spirits will reveal to him the location of the stolen money. Night falls, and as he and Steve try to get some sleep, a real live ghost is seen creeping down the empty street. It is one of the former bandits, long thought to be dead. The hunt is on now to verify the reality of the ghost, and to locate the the hidden loot. Smiley is scared silly, but still manages to sing a couple of songs, backed this time by Ozie Waters and The Colorado Rangers. I must say, even though it is not my main type of music, boy can these cowboy singers harmonise. And play, too. All of the bands and singers seen in the Durango films thus far have been top notch musicians. Smiley himself is said on his IMDB to have had the ability to play any instrument.
"Streets Of Ghost Town" does not have the same development of story as the other "Kid" movies we have seen this week. The plot is largely told in flashback by Steve, after the trio have settled into the ghost town for the night at the beginning of the film. And there is liberal usage of stock footage from other Westerns where chase scenes are concerned, including a major league Cattle Stampede, which does boost the value somewhat, I must say.
Maybe they should start putting Cattle Stampedes into all kinds of other movies. Whattaya think?
A Stampede in the middle of a romance? A tragedy? A crime caper? How about a Marvel Comic flick? How would one of today's computer generated superheros deal with a real time cattle stampede?
How about a whimsical independent Euro Flick, the kind that plays at a Laemmle Theater. What if the story of an quirky ethnic family was playing out, with all kinds of goofy in-laws in comedic conflict with one another, or even in a serious Swedish film..........what would happen if all of a sudden a Cattle Stampede ran though the picture?
I am just pondering the possibilities, which seem at first glance to be endless.
Anyhow, two regular thumbs up for "Streets Of Ghost Town". Not as involving as the other Durango Kid movies we have seen this week, but entertaining for the Ouija Board sequences and as always, Smiley Burnette and his music routines. /////
Starting tomorrow night, we may have some new movies arrived from Northridge Libe, and if they do arrive, they will be of a higher dramatic value, shall we say.
We had yet more rain today, and it seems as though this cold, grey weather pattern is endless.
Thank goodness for books, and study.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
The gang had used their hideout for years to rob folks who passed through on their way to other towns and cities. In doing so, they amassed a huge stash of money, jewelry and other valuables worth over a million dollars, which in 1880 was a very large sum.
The gang had to bail out when the land was settled. They took their stolen loot with them and have stashed it in an abandoned mine that they are sure no one knows about. But one of the gang gets greedy. He locks his partners in the mine and makes off with the treasure by himself.
Back in Shadeville, the Ghost Town, Smiley Burnette is playing with a Ouija Board, hoping the Spirits will reveal to him the location of the stolen money. Night falls, and as he and Steve try to get some sleep, a real live ghost is seen creeping down the empty street. It is one of the former bandits, long thought to be dead. The hunt is on now to verify the reality of the ghost, and to locate the the hidden loot. Smiley is scared silly, but still manages to sing a couple of songs, backed this time by Ozie Waters and The Colorado Rangers. I must say, even though it is not my main type of music, boy can these cowboy singers harmonise. And play, too. All of the bands and singers seen in the Durango films thus far have been top notch musicians. Smiley himself is said on his IMDB to have had the ability to play any instrument.
"Streets Of Ghost Town" does not have the same development of story as the other "Kid" movies we have seen this week. The plot is largely told in flashback by Steve, after the trio have settled into the ghost town for the night at the beginning of the film. And there is liberal usage of stock footage from other Westerns where chase scenes are concerned, including a major league Cattle Stampede, which does boost the value somewhat, I must say.
Maybe they should start putting Cattle Stampedes into all kinds of other movies. Whattaya think?
A Stampede in the middle of a romance? A tragedy? A crime caper? How about a Marvel Comic flick? How would one of today's computer generated superheros deal with a real time cattle stampede?
How about a whimsical independent Euro Flick, the kind that plays at a Laemmle Theater. What if the story of an quirky ethnic family was playing out, with all kinds of goofy in-laws in comedic conflict with one another, or even in a serious Swedish film..........what would happen if all of a sudden a Cattle Stampede ran though the picture?
I am just pondering the possibilities, which seem at first glance to be endless.
Anyhow, two regular thumbs up for "Streets Of Ghost Town". Not as involving as the other Durango Kid movies we have seen this week, but entertaining for the Ouija Board sequences and as always, Smiley Burnette and his music routines. /////
Starting tomorrow night, we may have some new movies arrived from Northridge Libe, and if they do arrive, they will be of a higher dramatic value, shall we say.
We had yet more rain today, and it seems as though this cold, grey weather pattern is endless.
Thank goodness for books, and study.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Durango Kid + TV Tommy Ivo + "Tombstone Territory" + Mr. Reeves + Love
Tonight's Durango Kid movie was called "Trail Of The Rustlers" (1950). Now there's a Western staple for ya : cattle rustlin'. Stampedes are a good one, too, and in this movie you get both rustlin' and a stampede. That alone is worth a thumbs up. The title of the movie is misleading, however, because the plot is really about an attempted land grab. The Mahoney brothers and their Ma (another Western cliche, the tough Ma) want to acquire all the land in the Texas river valley where they own a ranch. Their biggest obstacle is a rival rancher and landowner who will never sell, so the brothers raid his ranch and kill him, with the eldest brother in charge dressed all in black and wearing a mask.
They want to make it look like The Durango Kid led the raid.
Pretty soon Smiley Burnette is singing a hillbilly comedy song, backed this time by Eddie Cletro and The Roundup Boys. Somebody oughta round up all of Smiley's songs from these movies and make a highlight reel, because he is really great.
Good Guy "Steve" shows up in town soon thereafter. See last night's blog re: Steve, the alter ego of The Durango Kid. He never lets on that is is The Kid, of course, even though he himself is known as an expert gunfighter. Steve meets Tommy Ivo, an actual kid, who had idolised Durango but now hates him, because the news in town is that Durango is really a Bad Guy. He led the raid that killed the rancher. Steve knows the truth, as he is the real Durango, but he keeps quiet about it while little Tommy tells his story. Steve is learning everything he can about the land grab scheme by being nonchalant and asking indirect questions. When he knows enough, he will don the Black Bandanna (offscreen, of course) an ride as The Durango Kid, bad guys watch out.
It is funny - and interesting - what the mind retains. I hadn't heard the name Tommy Ivo in 50 years, and never knew he was a child actor. In fact, I would never have thought of him at all had I not seen him in these movies. His name would have just been one of those "in one ear and out the other" pieces of information that we process by the millions in our lifetimes, a name, or phrase or sentence perhaps, that flashes by for some reason or another.
But it's interesting what the mind retains, and when I saw the name "Tommy Ivo" in the credits, immediately my brain said "TV Tommy Ivo". I knew I'd heard that before, and within two minutes, while still watching the movie, I knew it was from an old radio commercial for Irwindale Raceway, a dragstrip in Orange County that was famous in the 60s and early 70s. I used to listen to radio station 93 KHJ as a kid, every day, and they would have commercials for Irwindale Raceway, during which they would announce the names of the drag racing drivers who were gonna compete that week.
I was a big Drag Racing fan for about a year or two between the ages of seven and nine. My favorite was Big Daddy Don Garlits, and also Don "The Snake" Prudhomme. Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen.
But in those commercials, they would also regularly mention "TV Tommy Ivo".
I never gave him a second thought, because those other guys were my favorites.
But then here I see him, fifty years later, as a twelve year old kid in a Western movie, and his name rings a bell in my mind. According to his IMDB, he also did a lot of television work, hence his adult moniker as a race driver.
"TV Tommy Ivo". It's interesting what the mind retains, which I am finding is just about everything. :)
At any rate, Two Thumbs Up for "Trail Of The Rustlers", because you can't go wrong with The Durango Kid and Smiley Burnette, and the Iverson Ranch locations in Chatsworth. /////
Because the movie was only an hour long, I also had time to watch an episode of "Tombstone Territory", a 30 minute Western series that ran from 1957-1960. I bought the complete series from Amazon a couple of years ago and have watched some of the 91 episodes from time to time. Pat Conway is great as the Sheriff, and you also occasionally get some Chatsworth or Simi footage. But tonight I was watching, and the plot revolved around a band of Confederate Rebel soldiers who had joined together after the war to raid and rob unsuspecting frontier towns.
I was watching a scene where the leader of the rebels is addressing his men, and my memory kicked in again and said, "that's Richard Reeves". In this case, the reference and recollection did not come from as "out of the blue" as did TV Tommy Ivo, because I have seen Richard Reeves a few times, say, over the last twenty years, in an occasional old TV show or B-Western, always in a small or brief part. In my life, I would guess I have seen maybe six or seven of his performances.
But the thing is, when I was a little kid, from 1960 when I was born, to 1967 when we were getting ready to move to Northridge, Richard Reeves lived directly across the street from us in Reseda, right around the corner from where I am writing to you tonight at Pearl's. All the kids on the street knew him as "Mr. Reeves". This was during the Baby Boom with a million kids around. But the kids knew that Mr. Reeves house was off limits. He rarely came out, and never turned his lights on at night. One thing that was cool was that he drove a Metropolitan. Google that car and check it out, it's really pretty neat.
Mr. Reeves kept entirely to himself, while this explosion of Kid Life was taking place outside on Hatton Street.
It's amazing what the mind retains, and I always remember my Mom telling us kids : "Don't bother Mr. Reeves". That sentence sticks out just as much as the announcement of "TV Tommy Ivo"! on the radio.
"Don't bother Mr. Reeves".
Mr. Reeves, I saw long ago on IMDB, was a prolific actor, mostly working in television, who specialised in playing "heavies" in shows like "Tombstone" or any of the other popular Western and police dramas that made up the rosters of broadcast television in the 1950s and very early 60s.
We kids knew he was an actor, but we also knew there was something wrong. Mr. Reeves suffered from severe alcoholism. His house was dark at night, though he would sometimes come out during the daytime to drive his Metropolitan.
I see on IMDB that he passed away at Northridge Hospital in 1967, shortly before my family moved to Northridge. I was seven years old at the time.
I love all the old movies and all the old tv shows, and I love all of the actors and actresses. I have probably only seen Richard Reeves twenty five times in my life, if that, onscreen and as he got into his Metropolitan. But I recognised him in tonight's episode of "Tombstone Territory", and so I mention him because it is amazing what the mind retains, and also because I love the actors.
God Bless Mr. Reeves, who did not have an easy life. ////
Tonight is also the early hours of Valentine's Day, and so I wish all of you Valentines a happy day of love tomorrow. I am single myself. and I hate it, but it seems to be the fix I am in. That doesn't stop me from sending all of you all the love in the world, however, and that is exactly what I do.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo to The Highest. :):)
See you in the morn.
They want to make it look like The Durango Kid led the raid.
Pretty soon Smiley Burnette is singing a hillbilly comedy song, backed this time by Eddie Cletro and The Roundup Boys. Somebody oughta round up all of Smiley's songs from these movies and make a highlight reel, because he is really great.
Good Guy "Steve" shows up in town soon thereafter. See last night's blog re: Steve, the alter ego of The Durango Kid. He never lets on that is is The Kid, of course, even though he himself is known as an expert gunfighter. Steve meets Tommy Ivo, an actual kid, who had idolised Durango but now hates him, because the news in town is that Durango is really a Bad Guy. He led the raid that killed the rancher. Steve knows the truth, as he is the real Durango, but he keeps quiet about it while little Tommy tells his story. Steve is learning everything he can about the land grab scheme by being nonchalant and asking indirect questions. When he knows enough, he will don the Black Bandanna (offscreen, of course) an ride as The Durango Kid, bad guys watch out.
It is funny - and interesting - what the mind retains. I hadn't heard the name Tommy Ivo in 50 years, and never knew he was a child actor. In fact, I would never have thought of him at all had I not seen him in these movies. His name would have just been one of those "in one ear and out the other" pieces of information that we process by the millions in our lifetimes, a name, or phrase or sentence perhaps, that flashes by for some reason or another.
But it's interesting what the mind retains, and when I saw the name "Tommy Ivo" in the credits, immediately my brain said "TV Tommy Ivo". I knew I'd heard that before, and within two minutes, while still watching the movie, I knew it was from an old radio commercial for Irwindale Raceway, a dragstrip in Orange County that was famous in the 60s and early 70s. I used to listen to radio station 93 KHJ as a kid, every day, and they would have commercials for Irwindale Raceway, during which they would announce the names of the drag racing drivers who were gonna compete that week.
I was a big Drag Racing fan for about a year or two between the ages of seven and nine. My favorite was Big Daddy Don Garlits, and also Don "The Snake" Prudhomme. Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen.
But in those commercials, they would also regularly mention "TV Tommy Ivo".
I never gave him a second thought, because those other guys were my favorites.
But then here I see him, fifty years later, as a twelve year old kid in a Western movie, and his name rings a bell in my mind. According to his IMDB, he also did a lot of television work, hence his adult moniker as a race driver.
"TV Tommy Ivo". It's interesting what the mind retains, which I am finding is just about everything. :)
At any rate, Two Thumbs Up for "Trail Of The Rustlers", because you can't go wrong with The Durango Kid and Smiley Burnette, and the Iverson Ranch locations in Chatsworth. /////
Because the movie was only an hour long, I also had time to watch an episode of "Tombstone Territory", a 30 minute Western series that ran from 1957-1960. I bought the complete series from Amazon a couple of years ago and have watched some of the 91 episodes from time to time. Pat Conway is great as the Sheriff, and you also occasionally get some Chatsworth or Simi footage. But tonight I was watching, and the plot revolved around a band of Confederate Rebel soldiers who had joined together after the war to raid and rob unsuspecting frontier towns.
I was watching a scene where the leader of the rebels is addressing his men, and my memory kicked in again and said, "that's Richard Reeves". In this case, the reference and recollection did not come from as "out of the blue" as did TV Tommy Ivo, because I have seen Richard Reeves a few times, say, over the last twenty years, in an occasional old TV show or B-Western, always in a small or brief part. In my life, I would guess I have seen maybe six or seven of his performances.
But the thing is, when I was a little kid, from 1960 when I was born, to 1967 when we were getting ready to move to Northridge, Richard Reeves lived directly across the street from us in Reseda, right around the corner from where I am writing to you tonight at Pearl's. All the kids on the street knew him as "Mr. Reeves". This was during the Baby Boom with a million kids around. But the kids knew that Mr. Reeves house was off limits. He rarely came out, and never turned his lights on at night. One thing that was cool was that he drove a Metropolitan. Google that car and check it out, it's really pretty neat.
Mr. Reeves kept entirely to himself, while this explosion of Kid Life was taking place outside on Hatton Street.
It's amazing what the mind retains, and I always remember my Mom telling us kids : "Don't bother Mr. Reeves". That sentence sticks out just as much as the announcement of "TV Tommy Ivo"! on the radio.
"Don't bother Mr. Reeves".
Mr. Reeves, I saw long ago on IMDB, was a prolific actor, mostly working in television, who specialised in playing "heavies" in shows like "Tombstone" or any of the other popular Western and police dramas that made up the rosters of broadcast television in the 1950s and very early 60s.
We kids knew he was an actor, but we also knew there was something wrong. Mr. Reeves suffered from severe alcoholism. His house was dark at night, though he would sometimes come out during the daytime to drive his Metropolitan.
I see on IMDB that he passed away at Northridge Hospital in 1967, shortly before my family moved to Northridge. I was seven years old at the time.
I love all the old movies and all the old tv shows, and I love all of the actors and actresses. I have probably only seen Richard Reeves twenty five times in my life, if that, onscreen and as he got into his Metropolitan. But I recognised him in tonight's episode of "Tombstone Territory", and so I mention him because it is amazing what the mind retains, and also because I love the actors.
God Bless Mr. Reeves, who did not have an easy life. ////
Tonight is also the early hours of Valentine's Day, and so I wish all of you Valentines a happy day of love tomorrow. I am single myself. and I hate it, but it seems to be the fix I am in. That doesn't stop me from sending all of you all the love in the world, however, and that is exactly what I do.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo to The Highest. :):)
See you in the morn.
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
"Laramie" w/ The Durango Kid + Still Freezing, Rain Coming
Tonight we were back with The Durango Kid again, in a film called "Laramie" (1949). This one was directed by a guy named Ray Nazarro, a veteran of many B-Westerns, and it was actually very well done for what it was. Now, stop me if you've heard this plot before : The Colonel at an Army outpost in Wyoming territory is set to host a local Indian chief and his delegation to discuss a peace treaty that has been proposed by the United States government. Army-Indian relations are shaky at best, but the Chief considers the Colonel his friend. There is a frontier scout who operates from the outpost who will play the "Iago" role here, pretending to be a confidante and adviser to each side, while ramping up the divisive rhetoric between them. The Scout tells the Colonel he is a fool to trust the Indian Chief, and then he rides to the Chief's camp to tell him the same about the Colonel.
The Scout is an arms merchant, in league with the town assayer. Peace is bad for their business. They want to continue the Indian Wars against the US Army in order to sell the Indians a large supply of rifles. They are trying to provoke a conflict to ignite tensions, and the Scout hits a bullseye when he manages to gun down the Indian Chief at the Peace Treaty meeting, from his sniper position outside the Army headquarters.
The Scout escapes to safety, then shits into Iago mode, riding to tell the Indians it was the Colonel who killed their chief, then riding back to tell the Colonel that the Indians are preparing for war. It is just at this time that good guy Steve Holden shows up in camp. "Steve" is Charles Starrett's "Clark Kent" persona in all of the Durango Kid movies. He always plays a guy named Steve (the last name varies), who is either the town marshal as in last night's movie or in this case an ex-Army officer who is a friend of the Colonel's. As the proverbial "Steve", he is always known as a fast gun and a straight arrow. But what no one knows - not even his sidekick Smiley Burnette - is that Steve is also The Durango Kid.
I explained that situation to you last night. You remember - Durango Kid, secret identity, wears all black including black bandanna mask, goes after bad guys ala The Lone Ranger.
So the deal is that, basically, once The black-clad Durango Kid shows up, the Bad Guys are Toast, although they don't go down without a battle. I mentioned that you may have seen this exact plot before, as you watch or imagine these movies with me, and I am sure of it. I can't name the exact Western, but we saw and reviewed it last Fall, and it featured the same story of a buckskin-clad Army scout who sabotages a peace treaty.
In "Laramie", we get an entire movie's worth of great Chatsworth location shots, and also a few from Corriganville in Simi Valley. In some places I am wondering, "have I walked on that trail"?
It must have been great to make movies in Chatsworth in that era, in the 1940s when the development of the Valley had not yet begun. It was still half-empty (undeveloped) when I was a kid in the early 1960s....
They had a different Singing Cowboy in this movie. This time he was an Army Sergeant and a Hillbilly Yodeler named Elton Britt. Check him out on Youtube. He was really good, as were The Georgia Crackers last night. And you always get a lot of Smiley Burnette songs and schtick in every "Kid" movie, so you definitely get your hour's worth, and every "Kid" movie gets two automatic thumbs up, as mentioned last night, just because of the Saturday Afternoon factor. ////
Tomorrow we are supposed to begin a major rainstorm, lasting until Thursday evening. This Winter we have had almost as much rain as in an El Nino year, which (cue the cliche) is "good, cause we need the water".
And I do love to see it flowing in the creeks on my hikes and such. And I love the green hills.
But man.......enough already. Bring on the Sun. ;)
See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
The Scout is an arms merchant, in league with the town assayer. Peace is bad for their business. They want to continue the Indian Wars against the US Army in order to sell the Indians a large supply of rifles. They are trying to provoke a conflict to ignite tensions, and the Scout hits a bullseye when he manages to gun down the Indian Chief at the Peace Treaty meeting, from his sniper position outside the Army headquarters.
The Scout escapes to safety, then shits into Iago mode, riding to tell the Indians it was the Colonel who killed their chief, then riding back to tell the Colonel that the Indians are preparing for war. It is just at this time that good guy Steve Holden shows up in camp. "Steve" is Charles Starrett's "Clark Kent" persona in all of the Durango Kid movies. He always plays a guy named Steve (the last name varies), who is either the town marshal as in last night's movie or in this case an ex-Army officer who is a friend of the Colonel's. As the proverbial "Steve", he is always known as a fast gun and a straight arrow. But what no one knows - not even his sidekick Smiley Burnette - is that Steve is also The Durango Kid.
I explained that situation to you last night. You remember - Durango Kid, secret identity, wears all black including black bandanna mask, goes after bad guys ala The Lone Ranger.
So the deal is that, basically, once The black-clad Durango Kid shows up, the Bad Guys are Toast, although they don't go down without a battle. I mentioned that you may have seen this exact plot before, as you watch or imagine these movies with me, and I am sure of it. I can't name the exact Western, but we saw and reviewed it last Fall, and it featured the same story of a buckskin-clad Army scout who sabotages a peace treaty.
In "Laramie", we get an entire movie's worth of great Chatsworth location shots, and also a few from Corriganville in Simi Valley. In some places I am wondering, "have I walked on that trail"?
It must have been great to make movies in Chatsworth in that era, in the 1940s when the development of the Valley had not yet begun. It was still half-empty (undeveloped) when I was a kid in the early 1960s....
They had a different Singing Cowboy in this movie. This time he was an Army Sergeant and a Hillbilly Yodeler named Elton Britt. Check him out on Youtube. He was really good, as were The Georgia Crackers last night. And you always get a lot of Smiley Burnette songs and schtick in every "Kid" movie, so you definitely get your hour's worth, and every "Kid" movie gets two automatic thumbs up, as mentioned last night, just because of the Saturday Afternoon factor. ////
Tomorrow we are supposed to begin a major rainstorm, lasting until Thursday evening. This Winter we have had almost as much rain as in an El Nino year, which (cue the cliche) is "good, cause we need the water".
And I do love to see it flowing in the creeks on my hikes and such. And I love the green hills.
But man.......enough already. Bring on the Sun. ;)
See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
"The Durango Kid" + Lisa Pease
Tonight I watched a Western called "The Fighting Frontiersman" (1946), starring Charles Starrett, whose bio claims him to be the most prolific cowboy actor of them all. He made a lot of movies portraying a character called The Durango Kid. You might remember my mention of him many months ago, when I watched another Starrett/Kid movie, my first, which prompted me to buy a ten-film "Durango Kid" dvd collection because I enjoyed it so much. These movies are pure entertainment of the Saturday Matinee variety. They clock in at about an hour apiece, which alone is a selling point for me as I love short movies.
I've had my "Durango Kid" dvd set sitting unopened on the shelf since about last Halloween or so. I hadn't yet peeled off the cellophane because I had a lot of other movies to watch (as I almost always do), but finally, after the Horror Marathon of October, the various dramas of November, the annual classics of the Christmas season and the several series we have watched since then, including all the Thin Mans, Falcons, Forbidden Hollywoods and Tarzans (among others), I finally ran out of movies.
Therefore it was time to break out The Durango Kid set, which is no knock on The Kid. It's just that these movies, while very much fun, are strictly low budget and can solidly be classified in the "B" section.
A bonus is that the two I have seen so far have been shot in Chatsworth, at the Iverson Ranch, so these are Santa Susana movies in every respect, and you can recognise many shots from Garden Of The Gods and a few of Stoney Point (aka "The Point Of All Things Stonelike").
The plots are simple, short and sweet. Tonight, a grizzled old prospector has discovered a treasure chest of gold coins in a cave off one of the trails. It turns out to be the cache of gold that General Santa Anna stashed during the Mexican-American war, worth an untold fortune. The prospector tells only one person of his find, a slinky local chanteuse who sings in a saloon in town. He trusts her because she has been the only person to have treated him kindly in the past. Soon, he will be disappointed, though, because she is beholden to the saloon owner and his henchmen. They hear about the discovery of the Santa Anna gold, long rumored to be hidden in the region, and they kidnap the old prospector and take him to a hideaway shack in the Chatsworth mountains. There, they tie him up & deny him food and water until he decides to talk, which he refuses to do.
The lady singer can't be all bad, however, because she sends a letter to Charles Starrett, the Marshall in town, to inform him that the prospector is being held hostage.
Suddenly, The Durango Kid shows up, all dressed in black, with a bandanna mask to match.
Could the Marshall and The Kid be one and the same?
No one in the cast will ever guess. In this way, you can think of this series as akin to "The Lone Ranger", or even "Batman" or "Superman". No one ever knows the Masked Man's true identity, no matter the character.
You don't need a lot of description to enjoy a "Durango Kid" movie. You just need to be a bit of a kid yourself. Fortunately, I fit the bill in that regard, haha. The films are well made, and you also get Smiley Burnette as Starrett's sidekick. He was a very talented comic actor who was also a singer who performed in these movies with a tight Western band called The Georgia Crackers. The two Durango Kid movies I've seen both feature a couple of songs by Smiley, in which he acts out the lyrics with a co-star, or goofs through the scene by himself. Smiley Burnette is a Hollywood legend from the early days. I learned about him by Googling after seeing him in the first "Kid" movie last September.
If I can find a Youtube of one of his song performances in tonight's movie, I will post it, because he is really an Original, I think. ////
Any "Durango Kid" movie is gonna be worth Two Lighthearted Thumbs Up, for the reasons described above. Watch for fun and to see old Chatsworth. ////
I am also reading my RFK book by Lisa Pease. She is very thorough and has done the most extensive analysis of the evidence so far, at least through the 300 pages I have read, out of 500 total for the entire book. It is very, very important not to forget the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers, and of Martin Luther King, all of which happened in a five year period, and all of which have decimated the cumulative hope of millions of Americans that we will ever have a political system we can trust.
Keep these things in mind, because this history is so very important.
Nothing is more important than the Truth, for without it, life becomes a lie.
And we can't just go through the motions, now, can we?
See you in the morning, with constant love in between. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
I've had my "Durango Kid" dvd set sitting unopened on the shelf since about last Halloween or so. I hadn't yet peeled off the cellophane because I had a lot of other movies to watch (as I almost always do), but finally, after the Horror Marathon of October, the various dramas of November, the annual classics of the Christmas season and the several series we have watched since then, including all the Thin Mans, Falcons, Forbidden Hollywoods and Tarzans (among others), I finally ran out of movies.
Therefore it was time to break out The Durango Kid set, which is no knock on The Kid. It's just that these movies, while very much fun, are strictly low budget and can solidly be classified in the "B" section.
A bonus is that the two I have seen so far have been shot in Chatsworth, at the Iverson Ranch, so these are Santa Susana movies in every respect, and you can recognise many shots from Garden Of The Gods and a few of Stoney Point (aka "The Point Of All Things Stonelike").
The plots are simple, short and sweet. Tonight, a grizzled old prospector has discovered a treasure chest of gold coins in a cave off one of the trails. It turns out to be the cache of gold that General Santa Anna stashed during the Mexican-American war, worth an untold fortune. The prospector tells only one person of his find, a slinky local chanteuse who sings in a saloon in town. He trusts her because she has been the only person to have treated him kindly in the past. Soon, he will be disappointed, though, because she is beholden to the saloon owner and his henchmen. They hear about the discovery of the Santa Anna gold, long rumored to be hidden in the region, and they kidnap the old prospector and take him to a hideaway shack in the Chatsworth mountains. There, they tie him up & deny him food and water until he decides to talk, which he refuses to do.
The lady singer can't be all bad, however, because she sends a letter to Charles Starrett, the Marshall in town, to inform him that the prospector is being held hostage.
Suddenly, The Durango Kid shows up, all dressed in black, with a bandanna mask to match.
Could the Marshall and The Kid be one and the same?
No one in the cast will ever guess. In this way, you can think of this series as akin to "The Lone Ranger", or even "Batman" or "Superman". No one ever knows the Masked Man's true identity, no matter the character.
You don't need a lot of description to enjoy a "Durango Kid" movie. You just need to be a bit of a kid yourself. Fortunately, I fit the bill in that regard, haha. The films are well made, and you also get Smiley Burnette as Starrett's sidekick. He was a very talented comic actor who was also a singer who performed in these movies with a tight Western band called The Georgia Crackers. The two Durango Kid movies I've seen both feature a couple of songs by Smiley, in which he acts out the lyrics with a co-star, or goofs through the scene by himself. Smiley Burnette is a Hollywood legend from the early days. I learned about him by Googling after seeing him in the first "Kid" movie last September.
If I can find a Youtube of one of his song performances in tonight's movie, I will post it, because he is really an Original, I think. ////
Any "Durango Kid" movie is gonna be worth Two Lighthearted Thumbs Up, for the reasons described above. Watch for fun and to see old Chatsworth. ////
I am also reading my RFK book by Lisa Pease. She is very thorough and has done the most extensive analysis of the evidence so far, at least through the 300 pages I have read, out of 500 total for the entire book. It is very, very important not to forget the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers, and of Martin Luther King, all of which happened in a five year period, and all of which have decimated the cumulative hope of millions of Americans that we will ever have a political system we can trust.
Keep these things in mind, because this history is so very important.
Nothing is more important than the Truth, for without it, life becomes a lie.
And we can't just go through the motions, now, can we?
See you in the morning, with constant love in between. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Monday, February 11, 2019
"A Free Soul", starring Norma Shearer, Lionel Barrymore and Clark Gable + Singing + Love
Tonight I watched the fifth and last film from my "Forbidden Hollywood Volume Two" collection, "A Free Soul" (1931), starring Norma Shearer, Lionel Barrymore and Clark Gable. Barrymore and Shearer are a father and daughter who are estranged from their wealthy society family. His wife died in childbirth, so Barrymore has raised Norma on his own, to be a free spirit and to look life square in the face and play by her own rules. This method of child-rearing might have worked better if Lionel were not a total alcoholic. His addiction has severely impaired his ability to function and has affected his daughter, too, leaving her emotionally unstable and therefore easy prey for a predator.
Still, she loves her Dad very much, calls him "darling" (I have seen this in many films from the 30s, daughters calling Dad "darling" and catering to him in an innocent romantic way. I wonder if it was a common endearment from the era or just a Hollywood movie invention?).
Anyway, Shearer's bond with her Dad is so strong that she overlooks his drinking and hopes it will go away. And he is not just a lush, but is also a top notch defense lawyer. As the movie is getting underway he is about to present his final argument to the jury on behalf of his client (Gable), a gambling hall owner accused of murder. Using a Johnny Cochrane technique, he produces a hat taken as evidence from the murder scene, has Gable try it on, and it is way too small.
"If the hat don't fit, you must acquit".
O.J. got away with murder, and so does Clark Gable, but worse than that - for Barrymore - is that his Free Spirit daughter has now met the charming thug Gable in the courtroom. She is immediately enthralled, and though she is already engaged to staid, plain-vanilla Leslie Howard, a champion polo player, she quickly runs off with mobster Gable, to live with him in the penthouse apartment above his casino.
There is all sorts of pre-code stuff going on here, besides the sheer negligees and nightgowns Shearer walks around in. I mean, even today a girl breaking an engagement to run off with a gambler is the stuff of scandal. But back in the 1930s? Such a woman would have been ostracized.
Lionel Barrymore finds out about his daughter's illicit arrangement, and - dependent as he is on booze - he still musters the strength to show up at the casino to try and bring her back home. He tells Clark Gable in so many words : "You are scum. Just because I defended you doesn't mean I like you".
And he sure doesn't want his daughter anywhere near the guy. Gable, naturally, sees it the other way.
Shearer willingly ran off with him, therefore she must be crazy about him. He is gonna try and force her to stay.
But she is just a kid. She doesn't know what she is doing.
Meanwhile, generic good-guy boyfriend and erstwhile fiancee Leslie Howard, a loyal chap in reality, is hanging tough behind the scenes. Dad Barrymore likes him and hopes Norma will come to her senses.
"A Free Soul" is a very early Talkie, so you have some remnants of Silent Movie acting histrionics with Norma Shearer, but mostly she is very good in another of her Modern Woman roles. And later in the movie, when she has to get serious and face the music for the bad choices she has made, she really turns on the drama and shows why she was considered such a great early motion picture actress. Her style is so natural that you feel you are watching a real person onscreen.
As for Lionel Barrymore, I have always felt that he was the best of the Barrymore clan of actors, and though he certainly chewed his fair share of scenery over the years, his performance here as the debilitated, negligent father is worthy of the Best Actor Oscar he won for the role.
As in many early Hollywood scripts, there is a final courtroom scene in this film, where Barrymore lets it all hang out. It is one of his few non-wheelchair roles, as he was still ambulatory at this point in his life, and he knocks the scene out of the ballpark.
This is also a film that brought notice to a young Clark Gable, who seemed to be cast as bad guys in his early roles. He is tough as nails here, a total misogynist, who ultimately meets his match in encountering "The Free Soul".
Two Big Thumbs Up. This is a major league drama, quite competent for 1931 as an Oscar worthy film, and totally involving on an emotional level, for any era. The themes presented are the themes of today, nearly 90 years later. ////
That was the last film from my second Forbidden Hollywood collection, so now I'll have to get Volume Three. Every movie I have seen in the two collections I own has been very good. I am a champion of Golden Era Hollywood because the movies told great stories, with great style. ////
We had great singing in church this morning. Our anthem was called "Soon And Very Soon", a gospel song by Andrae Crouch, who was a multiple Grammy winner and also a pastor nearby in Pacoima. His song is one of my favorite types to sing, because it is so full of emotion and you can belt it. Our choir director told us to sing as loud as we could, so I did. I love singing in choir. ////
I am hoping we will have some warmer temperatures soon, but until then, much warmth is sent your way.
And love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
See you in the morning.
Still, she loves her Dad very much, calls him "darling" (I have seen this in many films from the 30s, daughters calling Dad "darling" and catering to him in an innocent romantic way. I wonder if it was a common endearment from the era or just a Hollywood movie invention?).
Anyway, Shearer's bond with her Dad is so strong that she overlooks his drinking and hopes it will go away. And he is not just a lush, but is also a top notch defense lawyer. As the movie is getting underway he is about to present his final argument to the jury on behalf of his client (Gable), a gambling hall owner accused of murder. Using a Johnny Cochrane technique, he produces a hat taken as evidence from the murder scene, has Gable try it on, and it is way too small.
"If the hat don't fit, you must acquit".
O.J. got away with murder, and so does Clark Gable, but worse than that - for Barrymore - is that his Free Spirit daughter has now met the charming thug Gable in the courtroom. She is immediately enthralled, and though she is already engaged to staid, plain-vanilla Leslie Howard, a champion polo player, she quickly runs off with mobster Gable, to live with him in the penthouse apartment above his casino.
There is all sorts of pre-code stuff going on here, besides the sheer negligees and nightgowns Shearer walks around in. I mean, even today a girl breaking an engagement to run off with a gambler is the stuff of scandal. But back in the 1930s? Such a woman would have been ostracized.
Lionel Barrymore finds out about his daughter's illicit arrangement, and - dependent as he is on booze - he still musters the strength to show up at the casino to try and bring her back home. He tells Clark Gable in so many words : "You are scum. Just because I defended you doesn't mean I like you".
And he sure doesn't want his daughter anywhere near the guy. Gable, naturally, sees it the other way.
Shearer willingly ran off with him, therefore she must be crazy about him. He is gonna try and force her to stay.
But she is just a kid. She doesn't know what she is doing.
Meanwhile, generic good-guy boyfriend and erstwhile fiancee Leslie Howard, a loyal chap in reality, is hanging tough behind the scenes. Dad Barrymore likes him and hopes Norma will come to her senses.
"A Free Soul" is a very early Talkie, so you have some remnants of Silent Movie acting histrionics with Norma Shearer, but mostly she is very good in another of her Modern Woman roles. And later in the movie, when she has to get serious and face the music for the bad choices she has made, she really turns on the drama and shows why she was considered such a great early motion picture actress. Her style is so natural that you feel you are watching a real person onscreen.
As for Lionel Barrymore, I have always felt that he was the best of the Barrymore clan of actors, and though he certainly chewed his fair share of scenery over the years, his performance here as the debilitated, negligent father is worthy of the Best Actor Oscar he won for the role.
As in many early Hollywood scripts, there is a final courtroom scene in this film, where Barrymore lets it all hang out. It is one of his few non-wheelchair roles, as he was still ambulatory at this point in his life, and he knocks the scene out of the ballpark.
This is also a film that brought notice to a young Clark Gable, who seemed to be cast as bad guys in his early roles. He is tough as nails here, a total misogynist, who ultimately meets his match in encountering "The Free Soul".
Two Big Thumbs Up. This is a major league drama, quite competent for 1931 as an Oscar worthy film, and totally involving on an emotional level, for any era. The themes presented are the themes of today, nearly 90 years later. ////
That was the last film from my second Forbidden Hollywood collection, so now I'll have to get Volume Three. Every movie I have seen in the two collections I own has been very good. I am a champion of Golden Era Hollywood because the movies told great stories, with great style. ////
We had great singing in church this morning. Our anthem was called "Soon And Very Soon", a gospel song by Andrae Crouch, who was a multiple Grammy winner and also a pastor nearby in Pacoima. His song is one of my favorite types to sing, because it is so full of emotion and you can belt it. Our choir director told us to sing as loud as we could, so I did. I love singing in choir. ////
I am hoping we will have some warmer temperatures soon, but until then, much warmth is sent your way.
And love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
See you in the morning.
Sunday, February 10, 2019
"Forty Guns" w/ Stanwyck & Fuller + Absence of Tarzan + Freezing
I'm back. Last night Grim came over, so no movie. You know the drill. Tonight I did watch one though, and Holy Smokes and My Goodness......it wasn't a Tarzan. Man, I can't believe I am all done with my Tarzans. What am I gonna do? :( The good news is that I still have two to watch from the original Weissmuller movies, because of those defective discs that wouldn't play. I suppose I'll have to buy my own copies of the Tarzan Collections just to get the two unseen films, but that's okay because then we can re-run all the other Tarzan movies, too. Oh boy! (or should I say Oh "Boy"?).
In the meantime, I may purchase some of the other collections, starring Gordon Scott and/or Lex Barker, just to get my Tarzan fix. But then again I may not, because there is only one true Tarzan, Johnny Weissmuller. Accept no substitutes, unless you absolutely have to watch a new Tarzan movie and have already seen the originals.
But yeah, as I was saying, I did watch a movie tonight, called "Forty Guns" (1957), starring Barbara Stanwyck and directed by Samuel Fuller. This is a brand new Criterion release, so the black and white Cinemascope photography by Joseph Biroc looks incredible. Stanwyck is a Tough Broad of the type she played in "The Big Valley" TV series, except she is more cynical here. Director Fuller was notoriously macho and hard boiled, and this film comes across as a Noir Western.
She owns a ranch and half the land in Cochise County, Arizona. She also owns the Sheriff, and has forty ranch hands who also ride with her as gunmen, in case of trouble, so there is your movie title.
As the movie starts, three brothers have just ridden into town. Fuller has clearly modeled them on the Earps - Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil - but these men have a character all their own, led by the high-cheekboned Barry Sullivan as "Griff", a mercenary gunman paid to capture - or kill - bad guys. He is a very fast shot, and has come to town to arrest the crooked Sheriff's deputy, who has been robbing U.S. Mail stages.
Being that Barbara Stanwyck owns the Sheriff, his criminal deputy figures that Babs can get him cleared, too. To top it off, Stanwyck has a reckless, hothead kid brother, twelve years her junior, who takes out his jealousy of big sister's power by getting drunk and shooting up the town.
"Griff" the hired gun is intimidated by none of this because he has seen it all. He and his two brothers have a system for handling lawless bigshots in these frontier towns.....
But the problem is that the year is 1881, and according to the script (also written by Fuller), the way of the gunfighter is almost over, to be replaced by organized police forces in developing towns and cities.
Griff is hoping he doesn't have to kill anyone, but several of Stanwyck's forty guns are not cooperating, and her brother is a constant thorn. More than any of this, Barbara - tired herself of being a strong woman overseeing subservient men ( a woman alone, in other words) - sees Griff as a match, the strong man she has been waiting for. So even though he has come to arrest one of her employees, she sides with him because she has fallen in love, and within a short time the feeling becomes mutual.
Still, Griff and his brothers have a job to carry out - the arrest of the mail robber - and there are some in the town who like things the way they are, with Barbara making the rules and protecting her criminals, and these guys set up an ambush on Griff.
Samuel Fuller was a tough guy director from the East Coast who was also a WW2 vet. He made independent films with dialogue that was meant to forward his ideas about things. I've seen maybe five or six of his films, and while I can't call him one of my favorites, he is surely a skilled motion picture craftsman. In "Forty Guns" he is as his best, clocking in the picture at 80 minutes with a tight script that wastes no scenes. There is one involving a massive tornado that is a tour-de-force of staging and cinematography. I think Fuller could have been a big time director, had he played the studio's game, because his technical ability is beyond question.
I cannot possibly tell you anymore about this film, except to say that it is an exceptional Western, with some of the best B&W camerawork you have seen for a while.
We are all out of Tarzans for the moment, but Westerns aren't such a bad substitute, are they?
I mean - c'mon! - there was a time when all we watched was Westerns.....(and Sci-Fi, and Horror).
So now we will re-adjust for a Tarzanless future, but only for the time being.
Two Big Thumbs Up for "Forty Guns". I have ordered some other new Criterion releases from the Libe, so we will watch them as soon as they arrive.
I am getting a little bored...(ahem)....with the Freezing Cold Weather (I mean, it's almost mid-February, c'mom already), but there seems to be no end in sight. According to weather.com, t'wll be chilly through the next ten days, and into a deep freeze tomorrow night. 32 degrees! Now that is some serious L.A. Cold.
My revenge will be 118 degrees come July. I seriously can't wait. :)
I need a French Organ Music fix, so I will find it on Youtube, post it on FB, and then I will see you in the morning, in church. Gigantic love until then. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
In the meantime, I may purchase some of the other collections, starring Gordon Scott and/or Lex Barker, just to get my Tarzan fix. But then again I may not, because there is only one true Tarzan, Johnny Weissmuller. Accept no substitutes, unless you absolutely have to watch a new Tarzan movie and have already seen the originals.
But yeah, as I was saying, I did watch a movie tonight, called "Forty Guns" (1957), starring Barbara Stanwyck and directed by Samuel Fuller. This is a brand new Criterion release, so the black and white Cinemascope photography by Joseph Biroc looks incredible. Stanwyck is a Tough Broad of the type she played in "The Big Valley" TV series, except she is more cynical here. Director Fuller was notoriously macho and hard boiled, and this film comes across as a Noir Western.
She owns a ranch and half the land in Cochise County, Arizona. She also owns the Sheriff, and has forty ranch hands who also ride with her as gunmen, in case of trouble, so there is your movie title.
As the movie starts, three brothers have just ridden into town. Fuller has clearly modeled them on the Earps - Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil - but these men have a character all their own, led by the high-cheekboned Barry Sullivan as "Griff", a mercenary gunman paid to capture - or kill - bad guys. He is a very fast shot, and has come to town to arrest the crooked Sheriff's deputy, who has been robbing U.S. Mail stages.
Being that Barbara Stanwyck owns the Sheriff, his criminal deputy figures that Babs can get him cleared, too. To top it off, Stanwyck has a reckless, hothead kid brother, twelve years her junior, who takes out his jealousy of big sister's power by getting drunk and shooting up the town.
"Griff" the hired gun is intimidated by none of this because he has seen it all. He and his two brothers have a system for handling lawless bigshots in these frontier towns.....
But the problem is that the year is 1881, and according to the script (also written by Fuller), the way of the gunfighter is almost over, to be replaced by organized police forces in developing towns and cities.
Griff is hoping he doesn't have to kill anyone, but several of Stanwyck's forty guns are not cooperating, and her brother is a constant thorn. More than any of this, Barbara - tired herself of being a strong woman overseeing subservient men ( a woman alone, in other words) - sees Griff as a match, the strong man she has been waiting for. So even though he has come to arrest one of her employees, she sides with him because she has fallen in love, and within a short time the feeling becomes mutual.
Still, Griff and his brothers have a job to carry out - the arrest of the mail robber - and there are some in the town who like things the way they are, with Barbara making the rules and protecting her criminals, and these guys set up an ambush on Griff.
Samuel Fuller was a tough guy director from the East Coast who was also a WW2 vet. He made independent films with dialogue that was meant to forward his ideas about things. I've seen maybe five or six of his films, and while I can't call him one of my favorites, he is surely a skilled motion picture craftsman. In "Forty Guns" he is as his best, clocking in the picture at 80 minutes with a tight script that wastes no scenes. There is one involving a massive tornado that is a tour-de-force of staging and cinematography. I think Fuller could have been a big time director, had he played the studio's game, because his technical ability is beyond question.
I cannot possibly tell you anymore about this film, except to say that it is an exceptional Western, with some of the best B&W camerawork you have seen for a while.
We are all out of Tarzans for the moment, but Westerns aren't such a bad substitute, are they?
I mean - c'mon! - there was a time when all we watched was Westerns.....(and Sci-Fi, and Horror).
So now we will re-adjust for a Tarzanless future, but only for the time being.
Two Big Thumbs Up for "Forty Guns". I have ordered some other new Criterion releases from the Libe, so we will watch them as soon as they arrive.
I am getting a little bored...(ahem)....with the Freezing Cold Weather (I mean, it's almost mid-February, c'mom already), but there seems to be no end in sight. According to weather.com, t'wll be chilly through the next ten days, and into a deep freeze tomorrow night. 32 degrees! Now that is some serious L.A. Cold.
My revenge will be 118 degrees come July. I seriously can't wait. :)
I need a French Organ Music fix, so I will find it on Youtube, post it on FB, and then I will see you in the morning, in church. Gigantic love until then. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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